Work report for the fourth issue of 2010

The 2010 China International Laundry Industry Exhibition and Related Events Successfully Held in Shanghai
From August 26 to 28, the Shanghai series of events included: "2010 China International Laundry Industry Exhibition," "The 2nd Member Representative Conference of the Laundry Committee," "The 1st National Commercial Service Industry Skills Competition - Laundry Professional Skills Competition," and "National Laundry Technology and Management Lecture Demonstration," among others. More than 8,300 industry insiders and outsiders from home and abroad participated in the events. Vice President Wang Qinhua of the China General Chamber of Commerce and Deputy Secretary An Huimin attended the related activities. The entire event received high praise from the participants.
The exhibition was held at the Shanghai World Trade Mall Exhibition Hall. The exhibition area covered 6,000 square meters with over 300 booths, gathering more than 150 well-known brands from 12 countries and regions including the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The on-site and intended transaction volume exceeded 100 million RMB.
During the exhibition, the 2nd Member Representative Conference of the Laundry Committee and the 2010 Director Meeting were held respectively. Vice President Wang Qinhua attended the meetings and delivered an important speech. She believed that the laundry industry holds a significant position within the service sector, directly serving people's livelihoods, but it is also a developing industry with great potential for improvement in service capacity and quality. She called on the national laundry industry to standardize management according to relevant regulations, accelerate development, comprehensively enhance service capacity and quality, and better meet the needs of the general public and social services. The member representative conference conducted re-election.
The 1st National Commercial Service Industry Skills Competition - Laundry Professional Skills Competition included three events: "Leather Bag Care," "Leather Shoe Care," and "Front Desk Service Knowledge." Sixty contestants selected from provinces and cities nationwide participated in the competition. Nine contestants won the first, second, and third prizes; 30 contestants were awarded the title of "National Laundry Technology Experts"; and seven local laundry associations and one laundry enterprise received the "Excellent Organization Award".
At the National Laundry Technology and Management Lecture Demonstration, laundry industry experts Wen Lisheng, Wu Ruizhang, Bai Qiujv, and Yin Jianzhou gave lectures and demonstrations on "If the Washing Process Applies RFID—Including the Third Generation Suit Washing," "Clothing Curve Shaping and Decomposition Ironing," "Salesperson Service Skills Demonstration," and "Fur Garment Cleaning and Care Case Analysis," which were well received by the audience.

Ministry of Commerce Issues "Guiding Opinions on Further Developing the Laundry Industry"
On September 13, the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Developing the Laundry Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions") to national commerce authorities, providing guidance on further development of the laundry industry.
The "Guiding Opinions," drafted with the cooperation of the Laundry Committee, clarified the guiding ideology for further development of the laundry industry and proposed the goals and tasks for the industry during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. The goals include striving for an average annual revenue growth of over 18%, achieving revenue exceeding 100 billion RMB by 2015, gradually optimizing the industry structure, realizing community-based popular laundry service outlets, forming a group of regionally and nationally competitive laundry enterprises with standardized management, achieving a certificate-holding rate of over 30% among practitioners, continuously improving the level of technological application, achieving significant energy saving and emission reduction, and ensuring the overall industry development meets various service demands and the requirements of building a moderately prosperous society. The "Guiding Opinions" proposed guarantee measures to achieve these goals from aspects such as strengthening organizational leadership, improving laws and standards, increasing policy support, leveraging association roles, and enhancing grassroots work.
The "Guiding Opinions" are both forward-looking and closely aligned with the current realities of the laundry industry, serving as a programmatic document guiding the industry's sustained, rapid, and healthy development. When forwarding the "Guiding Opinions," the Laundry Committee required all member units to study it carefully and actively cooperate with government functional departments in its implementation.

Review and Registration Work for National Referee Certificates Launched The review and registration work for the Laundry Committee's national-level vocational skills competition referee certificates and cards began in November 2010 and will be completed by the end of the year. The certificate re-examination is conducted according to the "Management Measures for National Vocational Skills Competition Referees," which requires "referee certificates to be reviewed and registered every two years." The measures stipulate that referees must hold valid national-level vocational skills competition referee certificates and wear their cards to participate in competition officiating; referees who fail to register on time will have their certificates invalidated and lose their officiating qualifications.

Laundry Committee Launches "China Laundry Express" To better provide timely information services to the industry, the Laundry Committee launched "China Laundry Express" in September. This service mainly uses "Fetion" as the platform to release relevant information as quickly and promptly as possible. "China Laundry Network" and "China Laundry QQ Group" also simultaneously release related information. This information service is provided free of communication charges. The Laundry Committee requires all members to join "Fetion" to facilitate timely sharing of information resources. Fetion ID: 533610709, QQ Group number: 118943876.

Laundry Committee Establishes Leather Care Professional Office The new profession of "Leather Care Worker," proposed by the China General Chamber of Commerce Laundry Committee, was approved by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in November 2009. The Laundry Committee was entrusted to organize the formulation of the professional standards. On July 12-13 this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security's Vocational Skills Appraisal Center held the review meeting for the "National Vocational Skill Standard for Leather Care Workers," which is currently under approval. This work has attracted great attention and support from industry insiders, who actively suggested that the Laundry Committee organize professionals to establish a dedicated institution to guide leather care and related work nationwide. Therefore, after reporting to relevant higher authorities, the Laundry Committee set up the "Leather Care Professional Office" as an internal department. Its main tasks are to organize the implementation of national laws and standards related to leather care, organize experts to compile leather care training materials, carry out technical exchanges in the leather care profession, and promote the healthy development of the leather care industry.

Laundry Committee Participates in Soliciting Opinions on the "Consumer Rights Protection Law (Revised Draft for Review)"
Since the "Consumer Rights Protection Law" came into effect on January 1, 1994, it has played an important role in safeguarding consumers' legitimate rights and interests, maintaining market economic order, and promoting economic and social development. However, as the law no longer fully meets current economic conditions and consumer protection needs, the National People's Congress approved its revision in 2009.
On November 8, representatives of the Laundry and Dyeing Committee proposed six amendments at the "Consumer Law Revision Draft" consultation meeting: 1. Article 7 of the draft for review, "Business premises and service facilities must meet the requirements to ensure personal and property safety," should have supporting specific standards; otherwise, it is not operable; 2. Article 9 of the draft for review, "Door-to-door sales" should not be listed alongside online sales, TV sales, telephone sales, and mail sales; 3. Article 19 of the draft for review, change "Warning" to "Notification"; 4. Article 21 of the draft for review does not specify the warranty period; 5. The third paragraph of Article 50 of the draft for review should grant the "contracting service provider" and the "actual service provider" the right of recourse; 6. Disputes in the laundry and dyeing industry should be handled under contract law, not consumer law, because the transaction between laundry operators and consumers is a contractual relationship.

The Laundry and Dyeing Committee should report this year's laundry industry operation status as required by the Ministry of Commerce.
The key points of the report submitted to the Ministry of Commerce on November 18 are as follows:
1. Development status, existing problems, and development trends since the beginning of this year. Since the beginning of this year, brand chain and franchise laundry stores have further expanded; the central factory laundry model shows a development trend; large-scale washing factories face integration and upgrading; public textile rental business is progressing through exploration; laundry equipment manufacturers seek breakthroughs through technological innovation, with the first domestically produced "Laundry Dragon" rolling off the production line for trial operation. Laundry operators have strengthened brand awareness, quality awareness, and environmental protection awareness, improving modernization, standardization, and humanized management levels. The industry concept of "technological innovation, brand creation, environmental optimization, energy saving and environmental protection, and honest service" has been basically established, and the entire industry shows a healthy development trend.
However, some laundry enterprises blindly expand their scale without matching actual market demand; some lack funds and cannot invest in scaling up, with outdated equipment that does not meet development needs; the entire industry has weak independent innovation capabilities, with lagging development of high-tech and functional laundry services; serious talent loss, difficulty recruiting workers, and a general shortage of skilled workers; low-end equipment occupies most of the laundry market, making energy saving and emission reduction tasks arduous; serious unlicensed operations and unfair competition are reported in various places, disrupting the laundry market and making it difficult for many standardized enterprises to survive, and so on.
In the coming period, the laundry industry's public textile washing and construction of modern large-scale laundry factories will develop rapidly; centralized washing and specialized services for public textile rental washing will enter the laundry market. Popular laundry services, community chain convenience laundry stores, and centralized laundry factories will develop rapidly. The pace of building a standardized system for the laundry industry will further accelerate. The laundry industry's service concepts and service formats will continue to innovate, with safe, healthy, green, and low-carbon laundry services becoming the mainstream of industry services. Quality assurance systems and quality target supervision mechanisms will be further improved in the laundry industry.
2. Laundry service prices have slightly increased. The main reasons for the increase are higher washing costs, including significant rises in the prices of washing equipment and washing materials, employee wages and rent increasing by 10–20% year-on-year, and increases in water and electricity fees.
3. Policy recommendations to promote the sustained, stable, and healthy development of the laundry industry. Accelerate the establishment of the laundry industry's legal and standard systems; support enterprise technological progress and technological transformation, focusing on supporting the research, development, and promotion of new technology equipment in the laundry industry and the exploration and application of advanced laundry service methods and service formats, and support independent brand building; reduce the burden on laundry enterprises by lowering related social insurance rates, energy usage rates, and business tax rates; local governments' industrial support policies should appropriately favor laundry enterprises and eliminate various unreasonable fees; support laundry enterprises in consolidating and expanding domestic and foreign markets; formulate and improve laundry industry access conditions and guide standardized industry development; establish a catalog for eliminating outdated washing equipment, chemicals, and laundry process technologies; give full play to the role of laundry industry associations. Establish a good, normalized working mechanism of mutual support, mutual restraint, and standardized management among the government, associations, and enterprises. Authorize associations to carry out business functions such as enterprise grading, industry training, supervision and inspection, and qualification evaluation; promote brand development strategies to create a new situation where internationally renowned brands, nationally renowned brands, and regionally renowned brands develop together.